The Fire Games
by Wildjump
Summary: A GALE/KATNISS 74th anual hunger games story. Though out the books Peeta was Katniss' conscience, he was the pure while she was the strong. What happens when her best friend is sent into the games with her? How will it change the way they approach the games? How will it change the rebellion? Who will rise and who will burn? What can one name change? katniss/gale
1. Chapter 1

Fire. Fire was a symbol, a relic, a spark of hope for so many. Not in district twelve. In district twelve, everything burned. The houses burned, the people burned, the dirt burned, even the dirty filthy water burned. In district twelve being the girl on fire was just another euphemism for being dead. Thick sooty layers of coal dust darkened everything it touched and with just the right spark… the whole district would burn. Standing here atop the cornucopia staring into the molten silver eyes of the other half of her soul, listening to the dying screams of Cato below them as mutts ripped him to shreds; Katniss Everdeen swore on the grave of every child the Capitol had killed in 74 years that the whole world would burn.

Reaping day shone bright and clear with morning bird chirping their derogatory tune as Katniss Everdeen made her way swiftly and purposefully down to the edge of the district. No one was usually up this early in the morning, but Katniss was willing to bet there was more than one terrified child or parent already awake, fear gnawing at their stomachs like a hungry beast and starvation not far behind. It didn't matter though, anyone who would chance a look at her down in this part of the seam would look the other way. They all had to make a living somehow, and everyone knew about the accident that had killed Katniss's father, just like they knew of her mother's collapse. Everyone starved down here and those who didn't, were just as guilty as Katniss herself in one way or another. It was the only way the Capitol had left them to survive.

Katniss was listening for the electric hum of the fence long before it was in sight and was confident it was off by the time she reached it ducking smoothly between its wire terraces and into her beloved woods. She quickly reached her stash with her bow and arrow on silent leather shod feet. She was the huntress. It ran through every drop of blood in her veins, every beat of her heart, every breath in her lungs. The first squirrel fell neatly from the tree and Katniss retreated her arrow from his eye cleaning it. Two silent rabbits passed from wildlife to sustenance un-aware of the lethal predator watching them.

That was when the dear crossed her path. He was broad and nobel, aware, yet confident in his superiority. He was perfect. She raised her bow, breathed in and out, and spun as a leaf shifted behind her to train her gaze on a crisp shock of coal black hair and olive skin. She screamed her frustration knowing the dear had already fled and loosed her arrow into the tree to the left of his head. He could have been any boy from the seam, they all pretty much looked just like her. Rough tanned skin with undertones of earth and olive green, dull grey eyes, black hair and broad worker's bodies. Only people up in the city had the pale perfect skin, blue or green eyes, and blond hair that her mother and sister shared. The women up there had thinner willowy bodies that were all grace and curves instead of blocky muscle, but most of them lived a life style that could afford such luxuries.

"God Damn you Gale." Katniss shouted throwing a stone after him.

"Come on Catnip, what were you going to do with that wiry old buck anyway drag him up to the courthouse steps for every visiting peace keeper and camera man to see?" Gale said not the least bit afraid of the arrow or the rock both of which had conveniently missed his skull.

"I could have chopped him up and sold him around, I don't know, but he would have been something and tomorrow when all the extra crews are gone…"

Tomorrow. It was a word that hung in the air so thickly between them that Katniss deflated and stopped yelling at her older friend. There was no guarantee there would be a tomorrow for either of them.

"Tomorrow…" Gale said nodding and kicking a rock with his foot.

"Come on Gale I didn't mean… I mean you can't honestly believe…"

"No Katniss you know as well as I do. The odds are not in my favor." Gale said stepping ever closer to her. "48 times Katniss. That's more than anyone in twelve. People get chosen all the time with only four or five names in. I have 48. We both know I likely don't have a tomorrow. Not one like today." He's standing directly in front of her now and for a half second she fears she can't breath, but then his fingertips brush her skin and suddenly she's panting for air.

His calloused fingers pry the bow gently out of her hand as his other hand cups her cheek. "I have wanted to do this for a long time Katniss. I know you're not ready to hear this yet, and if I could I would wait, I would wait until the day I die if I had to, but you and I both know that day isn't going to be far enough away for you to be ready." He was so close now his breath was like a warm glow on her forehead and the heat radiating off of his chest warmed her chilled face.

He spoke into her hair line once more, "You are my everything Katniss. I love you, and I will always love you, no matter what happens in those games, no matter what I do… know it's for you, know it's because I want you to have a better future. One where you feel like you can love freely with out fear of the Capitol stealing that away from you."

"Gale your name hasn't been chosen and it won't be. Remember Jeffery Tanner from a few years back? Took Tesserae out on a family of eleven every year and never had his name pulled. You'll be right here beside me tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that." She tried to assure him, but he was too close. Her throat was closing up and the warmth radiating into her, the smell of him, the feel of his gaze on her face, sent a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the brisk weather.

Gale shook his head, "I hope you're right Katniss, but even so this can't wait anymore. You're not a child anymore a fact that everyone seems to be noticing." He said a hint of frustration in his voice. "You will know how much I love you before the reaping today if it's the last thing I do." His voice was fluid as dark chocolate, but hard and firm like the muscles of his back she couldn't help but notice the last time they had swam out in the woods together. His calloused fingers lifted her chin so that their silver eyes met and he bent down and kissed her softly. It was light and caressing at first, but as the initial blast of rational thinking was pulled apart by his soft firm lips Katniss began to sink into him.

They kissed in silence for several moments until the sounds of the woodland animals coming back into their vicinity reminded them of where they were and the importance of what they were supposed to be doing. Gale was the one that pulled away looking down and studying the woman now pressed against him in the circle of his arms. She was in fact not a young girl anymore. Her sixteen years combined with the hardships of the seam had built her into a strong beautiful woman equally feminine and brutal and Gale loved it. More than that though, he recognized it. It was what he saw every time he looked in the mirror.

"Katniss, you are perfect." He whispered softly before pulling her fully against his chest and tucking her head and shoulders into the circle of his arms. Slowly, Katniss still stunned in his arms, he reached for the bow leaning up against the tree behind him, took an arrow from her quiver, and with a strong controlled breath loosed the arrow from the string. It hit something with a solid thunk and a large crash announced that his pray was dead.

Katniss spun around in shock to see the dear she had aimed at earlier lying in the clearing a handful of yards away one of her arrows sticking out of its eye. "For tonight, when I'm gone. As a thank you for taking care of my family when I'm gone." He said a hand resting on her shoulder.

"And if you're not gone?" She asked still staring at the dear.

"Well my dear, I suppose you'll have a decision to make." He said teasingly and went to retrieve the deer leaving her bow leaning against the tree once more. Katniss felt like her world was turned upside down and backwards as she watched Gale's muscles ripple as he picks the buck up and slings him over his shoulders grinning at her and jerking his head towards the trail to their spot up on the bluffs. Katniss shakes her head and gathers her equipment following after him trying to shake the sick feeling in her stomach that comes with the line of dark blood spreading over his back from the deer's empty eye socket.


	2. Chapter 2

"You know you could have avoided all this if you had just drained the damn thing first." Katniss scolded using a soft rounded rock to press the blood out of Gale's shirt in the cold lake water as he lounged half bare on the river bank a few meters away.

Gale propped himself up to look at her and said jestingly, "And deny you all of this my dear? I think not."

He laughed at Katniss' cross expression, but they both knew she was having a hard time keeping her eyes off of his chiseled body and rippling muscles. Sighing dramatically Gale sat up and started cleaning the game they had caught making it even harder for Katniss to focus on his shirt.

Twenty minutes later found them sitting together, Gale still shirtless as his button-down blew in the slight wind on the branch it was drying on, looking out over the bluff. Gale tore in half his roll and Katniss spread a little of Prim's goat cheese on both halves handing one back. They exchanged their customary, "May the odds be ever in your favor" and bit into the rolls.

"We could do it you know. Head out there, live in the woods. It would be a hell of a lot better than anything I ever could have given you living in the seam. We would survive. We always survive." He said his face shadowed.

"You know we can't. Think of the kids." Katniss reminded him.

"I am." He said, but his eyes were distant and his voice was hollow like he was far far away from her.

Katniss realized what "kids" he must be thinking of and her gut tightened. She knew she could never allow herself to have children in a world where the capitol could rip them away from her in a heartbeat, but in the woods, away from the capitol… she couldn't let herself think of that, "Prim, Posy? They would never make it out here."

Gale sighed and buried his face in his hands, "I know." He said almost bitterly, but the look in his eyes when he looked up and stroked her cheek was one of pure longing as he said, "A man is still allowed to dream isn't he?"

Katniss froze, her stomach and chest in knots. She had never wanted these emotions, never wanted to feel this way, but this was Gale they were talking about, how could she not…

"Now you're just being silly" She said playing it off.

"Of course. That's what I do Catnip." Gale said with a cheery smile, but his voice was dead serious.

"We need to get going." She reminded him gathering up her bag of game and setting off back in the direction they had come.

Katniss barley felt the needle prick her finger as her blood was draw, she was numb all through the official addresses and speeches until Effie Trinket came out on stage in her ridiculous pink space alien outfit. This bazar woman held her best friend's life at her fingertips, but of course, ladies first.

"Primrose Everdeen." Effie pronounced joyously in her Capitol accent.

Katniss' heart stopped. The whole world froze for one second, then two, but the Peace Keeper about to put his hand on her sister snapped Katniss out of her reverie.

"No," she shrieked and broke though the crowd into the isle. She flung Prim behind her declaring, "I volunteer, I volunteer as tribute."

The whole world froze then, the crowd was silent and Effie was in shock before Prim's young screams filled the air and everything broke like shattering glass. Katniss was shoving Prim backwards demanding she go find Mom, the Peace Keepers where guiding her up to the stage and then Gale was there. His silver eyes locked on hers as he picked Prim up and carried her to his next younger brother Rory placing her in his thirteen year old arms. Tiny little Prim fought the stronger boy's devoted hold, but all Katniss could see was Gale standing dead center of the isle way staring at her.

How could he have been so wrong. It was not his goodbye to her that they had made this morning, but the other way around. She was the one being ripped from them. Torn a way from the living organism that had become their combined families. Like a lung or a leg, they would survive without, but it didn't feel like it at the time. Katniss saw the moment Gale decided to volunteer as male tribute and her eyes became wild and frightened as she stood on the stage looking into steel determination. She knew Gale better than she knew anyone on the face of the earth and she knew in her heart that there was only one thing that could make him change his mine. "Prim" She screamed at the top of her lungs catching a couple microphones and spiking the sounding board. "Take care of her." She begged more quietly and watched as his face fell and his duties to their families took over his need to be with her.

"Now dear, don't be scared come up here and tell everyone your name." Effie was instructing her, but Katniss didn't care, she needed to know that Gale would stay and protect Prim other wise he was just damning their entire collective family to death instead of the reaping that would have taken only Prim.

"Go on, don't be shy." Effie urged looking nervous now that Katniss wasn't responding.

"Katniss Everdeen." She said hollowly.

"Welcome Katniss, now for the boys." Effie said cheerfully

Not Gale, not Gale, not Gale, was the sole mantra going through Katniss' mind when Effie reads out, "Gale Hawthorn" and Katniss physically falls to her knees. Gale's jaw is hard as he makes his way up to the stage and picks Katniss up off the floor and into his arms. The emotions swirling around inside her are so strong and complex all she can think to do is say, "I've decided." and kiss him full on the lips for everyone in all of Panem to see.

Gale holds her to him gently on the stage as if afraid she will brake on him at any minute, but he kisses her back slowly and methodically as the crowd breaks out into whispers and titters around them. Effie squeals and shuffles around trying to get the attention back on her, but for the moment it is lost.

Gale is the one that breaks the kiss pulling back from her gently to cup her face in one hand effectively blocking anything she says from the cameras, "Just follow my lead and everything will be ok Catnip." He whispers to her softly. Katniss can do no more than nod before the Mayor is on stage once more asking them to shake hands as a symbol that they accept each other as worthy opponents.

Gale takes a step back and Katniss stiffens thinking he will offer his hand instead of his warm arms, but instead Gale turns and holds his hand out to the Peace Keeper beside him. He glances back and with a light tip of his head instructs Katniss to do the same. The Peace Keepers shake their hands and Gale moves on to the next Capitol official on stage Katniss mirroring him on the other side thinking about exactly what this statement was saying. Gale was physically accepting the Capitol as his enemy and rejecting the command to face off against Katniss herself. Effie was the last one both came to and her face was paper white under her powdered face. Instead of shake their hands she turned to Haymitch, who had been making a fool of himself in his drunken state, and grabbed his hand on one side and Gale's on the other. Gale in turn grabbed Katniss's hand and all four hands were raised into the air.

There were three solid beats of silence before the hands started to go up. The citizens of district twelve were showing their respect to their new tributes actions by rising the middle three fingers of their right hand in a signal of solidarity. Effie tried to laugh it off with exuberant giggles and dramatic bowing, but Gale soon broke away from her and raised his three fingers back at the crowd Katniss quickly following suit.

The crowd began to surge towards them like a wave as if in their recession they could draw two of their strongest young people back into their midsts, but the Peace Keepers quickly hustled Katniss and Gale into the justice building before the crowd could reach them. The Peace Keepers tried to separate them once inside directing them towards opposite sides of the building, but Gale's brash fist into one Keeper's face earned him a slap across the face from a metal gloved hand and a split lip.

"Hey! We can't show a face like that to the cameras!" Effie scolded the guard who backed down, "Come on in here dears and we'll get the medics to get that face all pretty for the cameras again handsome." she cooed at Gale leading them towards the room on the left as if Katniss wasn't even there. Katniss scowled at the pink alien and followed them into the room. It was largely empty apart from a single chair, but a second was being brought in as they spoke. "There you are dear, just relax." Effie fussed pushing Gale down into the original chair with both hands on his chest. Katniss felt a livid green bubble of jealousy boil up into her throat and pop like splatters of white hot acid.

Gale smirked at Katniss clearly enjoying the livid fire in her eyes as Effie doted over him. As Effie scooted back to allow the medics to patch Gale up Katniss grabbed the chair left for her on the opposite side of the room and set it an inch to the right of Gale's so that their arms brushed when either moved. Soon the medics were done and Katniss said a little sourly, "You know I can patch up a split lip too, it doesn't take fancy Capitol medicine to do that."

"Ah my dear, but you would let me walk around sporting that dashing bruise for the next week and let all the cameras see that the Capitol's thugs beat up a poor innocent tribute. I don't even think this is going to be stiff in the morning, whatever they put on it is like magic." Gale whispered into her ear letting his lips tickle and tease her sensitive ear.

"You wanted a backhand to the face?" She asked quietly a little incredulous. Then she snorted and said, "Well if that's all it takes to get you off…"

Gale covers her mouth with his three middle fingers reminding her of what it might mean for a tribute to show up with a Peace Keeper's metal glove stamped into his face, and says in a voice a little too husky to be reproaching, "Language Catnip. I also didn't want them to separate us." before kissing her on the forehead.

The door opens suddenly and in pours Prim and her Mother. Prim is in tears and clings to Katniss as soon as she can reach her. Katniss is pouring over her assuring her that everything is going to be ok and that they will figure something out. Gale stops them pulling them all apart and looking at Katniss' mother and sister in turn. "I know it's going to be hard loosing both of us," he begins wiping a tear off of her mother's cheek, "but if things get bad go to Haymitch Abernathy's Victor's house. He can at least spare you a little food and supplies."

"He'll help?" Prim asked shocked. Everyone in twelve knew that Haymitch didn't care about anything except his bottle.

"We'll make sure of it." Katniss said nodding to Gale in understanding, "Dry some of that dear we brought back to get you through the next few weeks or take Rory and go trade it at the Hobb, we've taken him a couple times. Get enough to last you the three or four weeks of the games and when he gets back Haymitch will be there to take care of you."

Mrs. Everdeen hesitated for a moment before saying to Gale, "Gale, your mother, she's…"

Gale nodded and put a hand on her shoulder, "Pregnant, I know. She told me. She didn't mean for it, but pregnancy always did come easily to her. Take care of her, do the best you can for her, I know she is still in the early months and she carries child well, but…" Gale broke off worry marring his features.

"Gale, she won't tell me who the father is, only that she cares for him and he her, but that he isn't the marrying type. She has every right to move on, it's been five years since your father died, but… I just wish for her to have someone there… and for the child… before I didn't worry so much, I knew they would always have you, but now…" Mrs. Everdeen cut off half way to tears.

"I know." Gale comforted her, "And she will have that, they both will. She has not told him yet, but I will make sure he is well aware before I leave for good. They will be cared for as will you." Gale assured her softly as the Peace Keepers came to escort them out.

"Your mother is pregnant?" Katniss asked Gale still a little stunned by the entire final conversation with her family. Gale nodded. "But she must be more than forty." Katniss protested.

Gale shook his head, "She's only thirty-seven. She was your age when she married my father… almost to the day… I was born when she was nineteen, three years later. She is old for childbirth though, it's why they thought they couldn't conceive."

"She must be scared." Katniss said thinking back on all the women who had come to her mother for help in complicated child births. Her mother was a good healer, but there was little to be done about such things in most cases. Often one if not both was lost on Katniss' kitchen table.

Gale tipped his head to the side a little thinking about whether scared was really the right word for his mother's emotions. "More like worried. She knows the father will not take the news well and he has good reason not to, but she has always born children well and he has resources that others in the seam might not should things become complicated." He explained.

"Is that what had you thinking about us? Your mother being my age when your parents got married and now your mother pregnant with her fifth child? You would basically be becoming a father yourself if the real father didn't step in enough…" Katniss asked feeling a little twist of rejection inside her at the thought that it was not his own feelings and needs but that of his family that drove him to think of her.

"No Katniss," Gale said tipping her jaw up to look him in the eyes as he shook his head, "Don't you see? I never stopped thinking about you. Not since that day, that we stood in line together to collect our father's metals after the accident in the mines five years ago. Since the next week that I saw you in the woods taking apart my trap. You may have only been eleven that day Katniss, but I was thirteen and just beginning to think of my future and who would be in it. People in the seam get married young. Your parents were older because you mother was from the town, but my parents were married the day my father turned eighteen and promised near two years before that. You are the only person I have seen my life going anywhere with. I didn't just start looking at you Katniss, I've been watching you for the last five years. You my dear are the one who has just started looking at me." he reminded her and kissed her forehead tenderly.

Any response Katniss would have made to such a declaration was cut off as the door opened again and the last person she ever expected to see pay her a last visit entering. Peeta Mellark walked in his broad shoulders straight and his head held high until he saw Gale stand in almost a protective stance in front of Katniss. "Mellark." He all but growled out.

"Gale, what the hell?" She asked standing up and pushing him backwards.

"Hawthorn." Peeta said equally disdainfully and Katniss swung her head to look between the two with confusion and frustration.

"What are you doing here Mellark?" Gale asked eyes hard and his stance firm as he pulled himself up to his fullest stature. For a moment Katniss almost giggled. She had seen Peacocks once, in the games, those had been mutts, but males would line up against one another and puff out their feathers to try to attract a mate and whoever had the nicer plumb got the hen. Peeta and Gale were so much like fluffing peacocks it was almost comical, but the sobriety of Peeta's answer pulled her back to reality.

"I saved her life once, I feel like if she's going to die I at least deserve my five minutes." Peeta said, his voice a little dead, "Unlike you I was actually there for her when she need me. You come stumbling along when she's all strong and beautiful and grown up making her own living and act like the fucking god-sent, but where were you when she was half an inch from starvation? Where were you when she used to sing songs in music class so sweet the birds just fell silent and listened in awe of her beauty. You can say and do whatever you want Hawthorn, but you will never know the Katniss I knew." Peeta's eyes were alight with a fire Katniss could not remember ever seeing in them and she distinctly remembered the frustration Gale had displayed he had said others were noticing her maturity too. She wondered if Peeta was the only one. Somehow she thought not. If Gale thought he had real competition he would be determined not frustrated, there must have been more shallow onlookers eyeing after her as well.

"Just give us a minute please Gale." Katniss begged of him taking his right hand in between both of hers and kissing the tip of his middle finger lightly where the bow string had created deep rooted calluses on the pad of his finger.

Gale's attention turned away from Peeta and onto Katniss, his face softened at the reminder that no matter what she had shared with Peeta in the past they too shared something that could never be replicated. "Of course Catnip." He said and pulled her close for a moment kissing her softly on the top of the head before walking over to the far wall out of earshot and sitting down facing away from them.

Peeta stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry about that Katniss, Hawthorn and I have been at that for more than a year now, it gets old fast."

"Neither of you thought it prudent to inform me?" Katniss asked temper rising.

"Not until you were ready, that was the one thing we agreed upon, but apparently he no longer holds even that sacred." Peeta said bitterly glancing over his shoulder to the hunched form of the taller man on the floor across the room.

Katniss shook her head to clear it of her anger, she only had about two more minutes with Peeta and they both needed some answers, she would deal with the issue of Gale's blocking the field for her without her knowledge later when they were on their own. "You knew she would hit you, why did you do it?"

"You needed me and for once I could help. You can't imagine the number of times I wished I could have saved your father or found a way to bring your mother back to you, maybe even just brought back that light that you used to have. That little glow that filled you up and spilled over into the people around you, but there was never anything I could do. Then I saw you there, starving, needing me, needing something I had, and I would have given anything to give it to you. I burned the bread and gave it to you. There is nothing that she could have done that would have been worse then the thought of loosing you." Peeta explained.

That incident had been three days before she had officially met Gale it was just long enough after the mining collapse for them to start to starve, but it was the image of Peeta's mother smacking him across the floor for helping her that gave her the determination she needed to go out into the woods for the first time. She wanted to be sure that no one ever came to harm again for helping her or her family. That was her job now much as she might resent her mother for forcing it on her and she'd be damned if she let anyone else come to harm because she didn't do her duty. That was part of why she and Gale had worked so well together. They were both at the bottom of the barrel with nothing left but their minds and their body between their families and death. That was something that the baker's son could never understand.

"You saved my life and that of my family too, but…" Katniss started feeling a little awkward knowing that she owed both men, but wanting noting more than to be in Gale's arms.

"No Katniss, I know you've already chosen I just wanted you to remember something. When you go into the games I need you to remember something. I didn't save you so that you could become this hardened killer he has made you. I saved you so that you could be the same little girl who can bring a music teacher to tears with her voice or light up a room with a smile in her pigtail braids checkered dress. I saved Katniss Everdeen, not Katniss Hawthorn." Peeta said.

Katniss' heart was oddly cold. She could remember that girl. The one that used to sing to the mocking jays and listen to their eco reverberating around her and her father, but then her father had died, her mother had relapsed into an almost trance-like state. Katniss and Prim had almost died, yes Peeta had saved them that day, but how many times had they not been able to shoot anything out in the woods all day only to find that Gale's traps had caught enough to feed them. It had been Gale's food on their table more times then she could count. Likewise it had been her food on his table just as much. She and Gale were equals, two halves of a whole, she and Peeta were… separate. He had saved her an what did she have in return for him? Nothing. The girl he had known had been lost when that mine collapsed. He wanted to save her, to bring her up the hill in to his cozy bakery just like his father had wanted to do her mother. Apparently she was more like her mother than she thought. She didn't want to be saved. "He didn't make me like this. The Capitol did." She said and turned away from the boy with the bread as the guards stomped into the room once more.

The scene between the pair and Gale's three younger siblings was heartbreaking, but nothing could have broken a heart more than the sight of Hazel and Gale mourning the idea that his newest sibling might grow up without a father figure, or worse that Rory would be forced into that roll at the same tender age Gale had been. Gale promised her he would do everything in his power to make sure the father of her child was there for them and Katniss was promising her own family's help when Hazel was dragged from the room by the men in white.

There were several long moments where Gale and Katniss just held each other, stabilizing one another as their past lives melted away from them and they became nothing more than tributes. Katniss was sure when Haymitch and Effie came to pick them up for their car ride to the train that the last of the seam was drained from their cores, but the sight of their people lining the street to their car saluting them with there three middle fingers raised lit the seam fire in her breast once more and she realized that was one of the things the Capitol could never take from her.


	3. Chapter 3

The train was like nothing either of them had seen before, but their equal distance from the prosperity of the Capitol only brought them closer together. Katniss sat in one of the plush arm chairs bolted to the floor of the main room and waited alongside Gale for their mentors to come in. Effie was their capitol mentor of sorts although her official title was as their escort. Haymitch was their in game mentor however and was an essential part of whether they lived or died. Katniss felt empty, what should she do? Prepare for her survival or for Gale's? Both were necessary aspects of her life and choosing between them was like choosing between two halves of herself.

When Haymitch entered the train car door he headed directly for the liquor bar and closed the door behind him. Katniss moved to get up and follow him, but Gale stopped her, "Let him have one more night of booze. I'll make sure in the morning it's his last."

Katniss shrugged and looked back over her shoulder towards the two doors behind them. She was willing to bet that there was one for each of the two tributes, bedrooms for their stay on the train, but it wasn't until Effie gave them a run down of the train cars that their arrangements were confirmed. Each had a private bath and Effie assured them that they would want for nothing in their accommodations. Dinner was in four hours, and after a recap of the reaping would occur, but for the next four hours their time was theirs and Katniss knew they needed it as much as Gale did.

Once Effie left the filed into the left most bedroom together and shut the door. Gale inspected every corner of the room carefully before whispering in Katniss' ear, "Four cameras and two microphones; be careful what you say."

Katniss nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him close to her and resting her head on his shoulder. "Did you mean it?" Gale asked softly in her ear, "When you said you had decided? Would you have said the same if neither of us had been reaped?"

Katniss sighed lightly, "Yes Gale, I meant it. It wasn't just a spur of the moment decision, this has been coming for months, I just wasn't ready to see it, because I was terrified of the Capitol taking you from me." She reached up and stroked his hair down the back of his neck and back up again soothing him. "I was sure before Peeta came to see me that you were everything I wanted, but I didn't know why. There was some part of me that knew I had options, that there were suitors waiting around the corner, but I wasn't focused on that and none of them got too close so I didn't really have to deal with it. Now I see that was partially your doing." Gale at least had the courtesy to blush a little. "I was mad at first, but I realized that they lacked the most important thing I need in a man…"

"And what's that Catnip." Gale asked softly just above her left ear.

"Equality. Peeta is better than me, he has more money, a better station, a real career in his future, and he's just over all a better person. He never had to make some of the hard choices we did. I can't offer him anything real. Others look down on me because I'm poor or fight like a boy or hunt for my family. Even some of the people in the seam who have nothing regard me as beneath them because at least their women don't have to work to survive. Boys who have no more ahead of them then a stint in the mines feel like they're doing me a favor by seeking me out because they feel that living on next to nothing and being half starving all day with nowhere to be but in the house with the kids is better then me being out hunting. You are the only person who is truly my equal. The only person who understands why I do what I do and that it makes me stronger. You're the only person that doesn't want to save me, you just want to suffer along side me. I could never be with someone like Peeta. The perfect Baker's son with no guilt or crime to his name. A boy with no understanding of what it is to look death in the face and tell it to fuck off, because I'm not done protecting the people I love yet… I decided before either of us went up on that stage, but it took looking perfection in the eyes and realizing I wasn't that girl anymore to be sure that I made the right choice." She explained still wrapped in Gale's arms.

"Perfection?" He asked a little sourly.

"If Posy came to you twelve years from now and said that she had an offer to marry the sweet baker's son who ices cakes so pretty even the Capitol would buy them and live up in the city with a sturdy roof over her head and plenty of food in her belly what would you say to her? If he truly loved her and his only motive was to give her the best life possible what would you tell your little sister?" she asked him trying to make a point.

Gale hesitated for a moment, but it was clear that he was thinking exactly what Katniss wanted him to think, "I'd say he was perfect Katniss and that you should go to him now and accept." He said grudgingly.

"But I'm not Posy, Gale. I didn't have a big brother to raise me and keep me happy and fed. I'm Katniss Everdeen and I have had to fight for every god damn thing my family and I have. Perfection? Not interested. I need something more Gale. I need someone who understands why I do the things I do. Why I am who I am. I need the other half of me and that could never be anyone other than you."

Gale tilted her chin up to face him. Her eyes were even and clear with no doubt in them at all. "You know how this has to go then Catnip. We have to be the closest we've ever been. We have to be one singular fighting machine in that arena. That's the only way we're going to win this."

"Gale" Katniss whispered "We can't win this. Not both of us and I can't do this without you. The Capitol won't let us. We don't have a chance of both getting out of this."

"There is one thing I promised myself I would never let them have when I started all this, and that was you. I plan to stand by that."

"Started all what Gale? You only got picked yesterday." Katniss protested, but it was clear Gale was not going to respond. He just kissed her forehead and took her hand between both of his.

"From now on you don't leave my sight. If you go in a room without me you go alone and I stand outside the door and vise versa. They have to think of us as one person." Gale said softly. The tone of his voice was meant to sound sweet like a lover whispering assurances, but Katniss knew the steel that laced through his undertone ever so delicately; he was plotting.

"You were going to volunteer weren't you?" Katniss asked the obviousness of his plan striking her now.

Gale chuckled dryly, "I thought about it. I even planned on it I guess you could say, but after my mother and the baby… I'm just not sure I would have gone through with it. I would have found another way. Then when you were chosen I knew I had to stay and take care of everyone. So no I didn't plan on volunteering, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to make the most of the opportunity we have."

"Now you just sound like the Capitol Propaganda Gale. What has gotten into you?" She demanded, "Opportunity? This is a kulling and there is no other way of putting it. You think they are going to give us something for this? That our families will be better off watching us die on screen? We have no power Gale, we are their puppets sent up to an arena to die for their sick amusement." Katniss was screaming in Gale's face by the end. Gale was still and patient waiting for her to scream herself out knowing that she wasn't finished yet. "Not even the victors win. Have you seen them? Half of them are blind with drugs or illness and the other half might as well have a collar around their necks." she said more subdued.

"We do have power, and they're going to give it to us, but that's a conversation for tomorrow." He assured her. Let's take a nap before dinner and we can deal with everything went the time comes.

"I'm not sure I even know you anymore Gale." Katniss said fingertips trembling a little as she reached out to trace a hard frown line at the corner of his chapped lips.

"I will explain everything to you, I promise. You will know everything I know, but we're to public right now, I can't. Tomorrow. I promise. Just have a little faith in me until then. You know me Katniss just think back, this isn't really new for me. I've been talking about this for a long time." He implored.

Katniss thought; she thought back to their least public times. Those moments in the woods, on their bluff, by their lake. They had spoken of so many things, but in relation to the Capitol the only thing they had really ever discussed was either running away or bringing it down… Katniss' eyes grew round and a lump formed in her throat as she realized exactly what it was Gale had been planning. He wanted to bring down the Capitol.

Katniss had always discouraged these lines of conversation fearing one day it would get him killed, but hadn't she said it herself? Hadn't she just said the Capitol would't let both of them out alive? The only way they were going to both escape this was to defy the Capitol and if they were going to die anyway, maybe their deaths could bring about the start to some sort of change. Maybe the killing that took place in the games could mean something for once.

"Like you said Katniss, not even the victors are really free." Gale reminded her.

He was right. From this day forward, really since the day they were born, their only chance at freedom was to bring down the Capitol. She knew that continuing this conversation under their current scrutiny was too dangerous so Katniss let it go. Instead she lead them over to the bed and curled up under the thick soft comforter. The bed was meant for only her, but it was far larger then the bed she and Prim shared at home and when Gale climbed in it was only the feeling of broad wired muscles instead of Prim's childish figure that made the space feel foreign. Despite the difference it was still Gale and it wasn't long before the slight smell of wood, leather, and coal sunk into her mind and soothed her as his presence always did.

Katniss stiffened when Gale's large warm hand came to wrap around her side making him chuckle, "Relax Catnip, it's only me." He assured her pulling her back against his warm chest and nuzzling his face into the side of her neck. She relaxed quickly and Gale brought his fingers up to unbraid her hair letting it flow in waves between them. "We used to fall asleep on the side of the hill in the woods all the time. That's not so different." He reminded her.

Katniss snorted knowing that they both knew exactly how different that had been, "You weren't holding me quite so close then, nor where the blankets quite so soft or warm." She reminded him.

"Semantics." He responded teasingly. Katniss couldn't help the smile that bloomed on her face despite their situation. "Explain something to me Catnip." Gale said toying with a strand on her hair, "How is it that half of the seam boy are drooling after you and you don't even notice, but you can spot a squirrel fifteen trees over."

Katniss laughed lightly, "It just never made any since. Why should they want me? I just assumed it was mindless teen wanderings not anything serious. Even so I never really had time for all that anyway. When would ever spend time with anyone? At school? While I'm hunting? During free time? You know as well as I that any moment I don't spend hunting means my family goes hungry, or yours."

"Most of them weren't serious, not in the since that you should have considered them anyway so I figured you would't mind me keeping them from waisting your time." He said smiling playfully at her when she glared back at him. "Some of them just wanted a good time and figured a seam girl would be easy," He explained voice and shoulders rigid with anger, "Others were more interested in breading stock or finding a wife to support the household for them to avoid to mines than anything else. Those were the ones that took particular convincing. You should have seen the look on your Mother's face when I sent Danny Fletcher soaring after he brought bread for a toasting ceremony to your house to try to bribe your mother into marrying you off."

Katniss sat up and stared at him, "Danny Fletcher asked my mother to give me up for marriage?" She asked in disbelief.

"He wasn't the only one thinking of it, he was just the only one dumb enough to do it. I was bringing some of Rory's cloths over for Prim to mend while you were at the Hob one evening when he happened to stop by." Gale explained with a sly grin. "You should have seen his face. He was not happy to see me there, but he just went ahead and asked anyway. Luckily his Mamma only lives three houses away so I was able to kick his ass all the way to his front door." He said with a laugh.

"My hero" Katniss said in a flat sarcastic voice, "But really I didn't need you clearing the way for me." she said a little crossly.

"Aww don't be mad at me Catnip." He teased pinching her hip gently, "Besides Peeta was my only real competition. You should have seen him puff up like a ripe hen when I told him to lay off. Looked me dead in the face and told me I was neither your husband nor father and if I wanted him to back off he would have to hear it from you." He said with a snort of amusement.

"He was right you know." Katniss said still glaring a little.

"That's why I let him stay. The others didn't care about you. They only cared about the convince; once I was in the way it was more trouble than it was worth for them. Does't matter anymore anyway." He said nestling down against her so that he surrounded her completely, "You're mine now and I don't ever plan on letting anyone take you from me." He promised with a little more steel in his voice than the occasion would usually warrant.

Katniss sighed a little recognizing that he was right and allowed herself to be held as they both drifted into a light nap.


End file.
